Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-18

SENATOR INGALLS,.
l called yesterday on Mr.. Ingalls,, the
brilliant and able president of the Senate,
the man whose audacity is proqerbial and
whose speeches attract the largest
audiences that any Senator has had in
recent years. He has followed the ten
dency of the year and drifted to Capitol
Hill, bringing his handsome wife and
daughter 70 a stately lowered mansion
Just opposite the chamber over which he
presides. There found him in the par
Ior entertaining friends, aggressive but
genial, at once thoughtful and fervid in
speech, ready to talk about current mat
tiers, and showing none of weskling's
nervous apprehension Of being misunder-
stood.
About the Blair educational bill asked
him whether the pactollan scheme Of the
tar Ritted gentle man from New Hamp-
shire would become law.
Every likely it may pass the Senate"
he said; "such measures do; but it GER
tainly ought not to become a law. The
idea CT spending $50, 100000 broadcas
indiscriminately fer schools through q
community that Goes not wsnt schools
is preposterous and fatuous. What
ought to be done, in my opinion, and
what [ shall advocate further on. is 10 es-
tablish great government training school
for teachers, like West Point, where they
can be educa'ed st the nations exp7rse
and thence they can be sent for service
wherever they are needed-thst is to all
communities that cannot or will not pro-
vide schools for themselves. Their sala-
rias must be be paid ont of the federal
treasury as army officers are, and they
must be bound to a certain length Of ser
vice. That, it seems to me, would be far
more efficient than the Blair bill, which
would be, if not q law to promote men
delaney, as it has been called, ct least q
dangerous precedent and worthless ex-
pedtent."
"What about the navy" inquired.
"Well," he replied, az doubt If we
ought to make any more appropriations
for new ships at present. TIE trouble is
that the growth Of the art OF naval archl-
lecture and of modern projectiles is SO
rapid that war ship is now Anticipated
before she is off the stocks. The methods
of five years ago are obsolete. The battle
between heavy shot and heavy armor still
goes on, and we ought to wait until the
indications OF the final result are clearer.
Republicans have been very generous in
ocratic administration for new navy,
and now | think we ought TO call halt
and wait and see.
sit is not by navy anyway. that our
coast will b. defended The navies OF
England, France, Spain and Denmark,
assembled at their respective rendezvous
in the West Indies, could strike any city
on our Atlantic seaboard within four
Lor NH
Portland to St. Augustine, being within
that range. In order to defend such q
lire Of cities By navy we should have to
have q dozen great iron clad ships at each
seaport, which is, Of course, impractical
bic and impossible.''
"What method do you favor, them"
"Sclid defense from the coast itself.
New York City can be adequately de-
Tended from the forts that command the
channels of approsch by mounting guns
of the heaviest caliber, capable of throw
ing solid proiectile as big as man six
or eight miles. No ship could stand up
against such batteries as we could easily
erect. They would be practically I'M
pregusble, almost inperishable, and
their construction ought not to be de-
layed sny longer"
show about reconstructiDg our mer-
chant marine, Senator?"
Hang the merchant marine. We
don't want any. Ii we wanted merchant
ships wouldn't we have them? Why
don't we command the carrying trade Of
the Atlantic? For the same reason that
we don't make Bokhara rugs and raise
pine apples-because it doesn't pay. 1t
| is estimated that the ocean ships in New
York, Boston and Baltimore do not pay
| to their owners Il cents on their invest
ment. What do Americans want of
such business IS that? The ocean por.
terage of the world belongs to its cheap
unskilled lsborers, just as the city porter
age of Washington naturally falls to men
| who are not capsule of earning high
| wages. We are richer, stronger and every
waY better of, both in peace and war,
without any commercial marine, and our
ships whose sails used to whiten every
SEES, as the orators say, were
an element and evidence Of
property snd not of prosperity.
A can OF kerosene can to-day be carried
from Brooklyn to Egypt cheaper than 1t
csn be carried from Brooklyn to Pough-
keepsie on the Hudson. Americans can
make money only by investing on their
own shores. This IS my opinion, but SIS
am wild western yshoo, supposed to
dress in buckskin and live in dugout,
am thought oy some not to have any ri light
to any opinion concerning the saline des-
tiny of our glorious flag.
Ingalls, looks little like Jackson in his
prime, say five years before Lieutenant
Randolph pulled his nose. He has the
same sharp and commanding eye, the
same mobile face. the same alert manner.
the same thin face and high-peaked head,
with hair somewhat towsled, II not brist-
Iy, the same forceful and emphatic way oil
laying down his opinions; but in CONVEX
sation he has not the arrogant and impu.
| dent dogmatism OF Old Hickory and Nor
rison, but combines q picturesque talkel
and an eloquent listener.
w. A. CRoFFuT.